Key events:

• During the late 19^th century, New England played a less central part in the evolution of American civilization than it had in previous eras.  New England continued to grow modestly but the nation’s attention focused more on the rise of great urban centers in the mid-Atlantic states and of the Midwest and on the final settlement of the frontier and the growth of the young  Pacific coast states. 
  

• New England, which had become solidly Republican in the period of crisis before the Civil War, remained a bastion of Republican power and culture during this era.  Rural Yankees dominated its politics thanks in part to malapportionment of state legislatures in favor of rural areas, a pattern that had carried over from the colonial era.  At the end of the 19^th century, a new wave of immigration flowed into the region; Irish, Italian, Portuguese and French-Canadian immigrants began the competition for more economic and political power, a struggle that would continue well into the 20^th century.

• The Republican culture had many benefits.  New England continued to be relatively progressive as to civil rights.  Large businesses – mainly textile and mechanical manufacturers and railroads – dominated the regional economy but did not always have their way in the legislature and the courts.  New England states were some of the first to create railroad regulatory commissions, and they began to enact reform measures to promote better workplace conditions and public health well before the advent of the Progressive era, when the reform movement became nationwide.